Jerusalem Police chief Niso Shacham’s suspension this week is one of a long string of punishments meted out to those who led the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said Thursday. Rabbi Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Tzfat, spoke on his weekly radio show on Arutz Sheva.

“There is something deep and real here,” he said. “Everyone who touched the abomination called ‘expulsion’ has paid the price, some more and some less.”

“It’s amazing to see how Olmert got what was coming to him, how Karadi, Halutz, Hanegbi, Katzav, and whoever was part of the Disengagement plan was thrown out. The chain of events is just astonishing,” he continued.

“The public understands that God is leading,” he added. The suspension occurred on the eve of Tisha B’Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple, he noted. “On this very day seven years ago he spoke in the most disgusting manner possible, and the courts told him it was OK and it was legal,” he said.

Shacham made headlines in 2005 when a video surfaced of him telling police officers to beat protesters against the Disengagement. “I know these hareidim,” he told officers. “I want arrests… If you need to, beat them with your nightsticks.”

Shacham used vulgar and sexually explicit language when insulting protesters. This week it was revealed that he is suspected of sexual misconduct, including harassment of subordinates and illegal relationships with female officers.

The public now realizes that the withdrawal from Gaza was a mistake, says Rabbi Eliyahu. “Those who believed the false prophets - that no Kassams would fly from Gush Katif, that it would strengthen the moderate forces in the Gaza Strip, that Israel’s situation in the international arena would improve - have opened their eyes and seen that it was all nonsense, that nothing good came out of it,” he declared.

“People thought they were smarter than God… It’s so reminiscent of the destruction of the Temple, when the false prophets said everything would be alright,” he said.